Why reading the 2012 Social Media Marketing Report could help your business

Social Media Examiner recently released their fourth annual Social Media Marketing Report, a document which aims to understand how marketers are using social media in 2012. In the report, 3800 marketers have revealed where how much time they spend on their social media activities, where their central focus lies, and what rewards they gain from this investment. With 83% of these marketers indicating that social media is important for their business, it is clearly a significant strategy which all businesses should consider. Even if you already have social media marketing in place, the findings may help you to review and improve your approach.

The report revealed the top three platforms for social media marketing to be Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, with 92%, 82% and 73% of companies maintaining their presence on these sites respectively. The statistics also highlighted the importance of time invested in social media – 60% of those spending at least 6 hours a week on saw significant benefits, compared with only 46% of those who spent 5 hours or less. These benefits proved to be hugely important – the most significant improvements were said to be more business exposure, increased traffic, and marketplace insight, aspects which all companies surely hope to achieve.

These are some of the main statistics, but the report itself holds a huge amount of useful additional information. It is a must read for those looking to construct an up-to-date social media marketing strategy, or update their existing procedures.